The Syrian regime moved to crack down on a peaceful protest movement in Suweida, eight days after the outbreak of demonstrations against President Bashar Al Assad in the mostly Druze province.
A citizen journalists’ network said regime personnel broke up a peaceful demonstration – fuelled by the sharp deterioration in the economy – in a central square in Suweida city on Sunday and arrested seven people in the first direct action against the mostly young demonstrators.
Suwayda24, which has been documenting civil disobedience in the area, said secret police and Baath Brigades militiamen were among the loyalist forces who attacked the demonstrators with sticks.
Photos by the network showed demonstrators at a main square carrying a banner directed at the president that read: “Leave. We want a civilian, secular state that unites all Syrians and treats them equally.”
Other photos show one security personnel carrying an AK-47 next to another uniformed enforcer grabbing a man by his hair. Other loyalists in military fatigue are also among the crowd.
Suweida has been a barometer of how would the regime would deal with mass discontent since the currency renewed steep falls, trading at over 3,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar at the beginning of this month.
The exchange rate hovered around 50 pounds to the dollar at the outbreak of the 2011 revolt against Assad family rule.
Among the factors contributing to the collapse of the Syrian pound, according to regional bankers, are the printing of money by the authorities, a financial meltdown in Lebanon at the end of last year and a US legislation containing sanctions against the regime that is due to come into effect on Wednesday.
While unconfirmed reports emerged this month of people in regime areas expressing rare public displeasure with Mr Al Assad, Suweida became the first governorate the regime considers loyalist with sustained public dissent.
The Alawite-dominated regime markets itself as the protector of fellow minorities, which has hampered the regime’s natural instinct for the last five decades to strike with an iron fist at any sign of dissent.
The authorities mounted a counter rally in Suweida last week in support of the president.
Noura Basha, a citizen journalist in Suweida, told The National that only a limited number of people showed up, despite the regime's use of coercion to force Suweida's inhabitants to attend.
“They threatened public workers will be fired and students will be dismissed. But only 1,000 people or so showed up,” she said.
Later in the week, Mr Al Assad replaced his prime minister – a powerless position in a system underpinned by the security apparatus.
The new prime minister, Hussein Arnous, pledged on Saturday to reverse currency falls the regime blames on “speculators”.
The pound has improved over the last week as the regime channelled dollars into the market. But on Sunday the pound was trading in Damascus at 2,500 to the dollar, compared with 2,275 the day before, data by currency monitor The Syrian Pound Today showed.
A regional banker in Dubai said that Mr Al Assad “will learn the hard way that he cannot control an economy like he controls his opponents.”
The rule of the Assads began in 1970 when Hafez Al Assad, then the defence minister, took power in a coup from another Alawite officer, who had survived an earlier coup by a Druze officer, largely because Hafez Al Assad denied the Druze officer support.
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 428hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 3,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
KEY%20DATES%20IN%20AMAZON'S%20HISTORY
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TOUCH RULES
Touch is derived from rugby league. Teams consist of up to 14 players with a maximum of six on the field at any time.
Teams can make as many substitutions as they want during the 40 minute matches.
Similar to rugby league, the attacking team has six attempts - or touches - before possession changes over.
A touch is any contact between the player with the ball and a defender, and must be with minimum force.
After a touch the player performs a “roll-ball” - similar to the play-the-ball in league - stepping over or rolling the ball between the feet.
At the roll-ball, the defenders have to retreat a minimum of five metres.
A touchdown is scored when an attacking player places the ball on or over the score-line.
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SUZUME
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Company%20profile
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922 – 1923
Editor Ze’ev Rosenkranz
Princeton
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
'Moonshot'
Director: Chris Winterbauer
Stars: Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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